Overall, Evangelicals have been unflagging in their support of President Trump, and the Republican Party in recent decades, but there is a sentiment among many church leaders that the group has allowed its identity to become too political. The new President of the Southern Baptists (an "evangelical sect" and the nation's largest Protestant sect) J.D. Greear is promising to bring a less politicized gospel to his followers.
Greear said on Monday:
"We believe that Jesus is the lord of the whole earth. He is the king of kings and he is the lord of lords. We believe that he, not any version of Caesar, is the Messiah. He is the Christ, the son of the living God, that salvation is found in him, not in the Republican platform or the Democratic platform, and that salvation did not come riding in on the wings of Air Force One. It came cradled in a manger."
Vice President Mike Pence addressed the Souther Baptist Convention yesterday, speaking briefly of his own personal conversion experience before going on to tout the political accomplishments of Donald Trump at length. There had been a vote to remove Pence as a speaker from the Convention the previous day-- but the motion only received about 30% support.
After Pence's speech, Greear tweeted:
"I know that sent a terribly mixed signal. We are grateful for civic leaders who want to speak to our Convention—but make no mistake about it, our identity is in the gospel and our unity is in the Great Commission. Commissioned missionaries, not political platforms, are what we do."
The election of Greear seems to crystallize the ascendancy of more politically moderate voices in the Southern Baptist Church; during the convention in which he was elected, resolutions were passed that called for more acceptance of immigrants, criticized the separation of families at the border and urged more generous treatment of refugees.
Greear's election comes at a tumultuous time, as leaders of several prominent Southern Baptist churches have been exposed as sexual predators, and the church's overall culture of suppressing the voices and concerns of women has been criticized.
Of the recent scandals Greear wrote:
"God is stirring in the SBC. He has exposed a startling amount of sin in our midst. He has shaken many of our foundations. And I actually think that’s good news, because whom the Lord loves, he chastens."
Greear, the youngest leader of the SBC to be elected in decades, also wrote of race relations, saying: "We need to recognize the leadership gifts of brothers and sisters of color that God has placed in our midst and embrace their leadership. This should have happened a long time ago, but in this new era we desperately need their wisdom and influence.”
Greear is pictured humorously in the middle between his described "protection"-- newly elected SBC Vice Presidents Felix Cabrera and Dr. A.B. Vines:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/n...cted-southern-baptist-president-sbc-2018.html
Greear's message gives me hope for the Gospel in America. The Southern church has been perverted in recent decades-- and in many ways since its inception-- as it has allowed "Evangelicalism" to become a political and cultural identity rather than a genuine discipleship of Christ (this criticism is by no means limited to the Evangelicals; although, they are the most politicized of any American religious group:
http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-co...2225/FT_16.11.09_Relig_ExitPoll_ReligRace.png)
If Greear succeeds in "de-weaponizing" the Evangelical Church as a platform of the Republican party, it would be a good thing, and a potentially major shift in American electoral politics. Good luck to President Greear and Peace to All People of Goodwill.
